How can we make the forums easier to use?

[Shayne Wagley_2]

Hi all -

I would like to run an idea by you. Several of you have expressed that you
would like the forums categorized to make it easier to search by topic within a
forum. One way to classify the topics within a forum is to use the Technical
Knowledge Base categories. For an example, include sub-categories in the HP-UX
forum: Databases, HP-UX Patches (Patch Database), HP-UX System
Administration, LVM, Languages, Messaging, Networking, Security Bulletins,
System Down. Would you find this method useful?

Please let me know what you think of the idea either by posting a reply to this
message or submitting your thoughts via the forum feedback mechanism.

Thank you,

Shayne Wagley
Forum Administrator
Hewlett-Packard Company

[Anthony Goonetilleke_1]

It sounds good but I am not sure if I like the idea of looking through 20 areas
to see if I can answer any of the questions, and some problems fall under
different areas and some people don't even know what area the problem is in
when they post the question. Maybe we can encourage people to post summaries
after the questions have been answered and these can be stored in the relevant
areas? Im not sure if it will work but its just an idea..

regards,
AG

[Melvyn Burnard_1]

The idea in itself has merits, but I believe would make it more time-consuming
to search thru the different areas to try to assist people.
More important, I believe, is the facility where we could see some form of
"acceptance" that the query has been answered to the question posers's
satisfaction.
This would do two things, A) we would know that we no longer have to assist on
the query, and b) anyone following the origional query could know there was an
answer.

[Carlos Riera]

I like Anthony?s idea. So you can see active questions, and before post your
question you can search on problems yet discussed.

Posting summaries after must came back us how much usefull are the answers.

[Alan Riggs_1]

I do not think that splitting the board up into still more categories would be
helpful. I think it is more valuable to be able to peruse all of the active
topics in one view. I do think that it might serve the same purpose if you
added a flag to each thread heading which specified the area being addressed
(LVM, BACKUP, etc.) The flag could be selected by the originator on the
initial posting screeen (pulldown menu, perhaps).

I also think it would be helpful if threads were displayed according to when
the last message was posted to the thread rather than when the thread
originated. This would bring active threads to the top and make it easier to
determine whether new information had been added to the topic

[Robert Gamble_3]

I agree with Alan.
Keep it all in one group, but allow users to set flags as to type of question.
The correct use of flags should be moderated/monitored by HP.